Cool Eyes
by TigerstripeCrayon
Summary: She always tried so hard, but he never turned his cool eyes on her. Neji/Ten TenTen Centric
1. Chapter 1

I'm never good enough. Outshone by either prodigy or hard worker, I'm always in the background. If I try, I fail. I work, but it's never good enough.

I watch his cool eyes, but he doesn't see.

The other girls are all liked. Sakura has Lee and Naruto, always chasing after her, devoted to an unimaginable level. Ino is beautiful, with shining blonde hair like the sun and pure blue eyes, men trip over themselves for her attention. Hinata is dedicated, and the shy girl has more admirers than she knows. But where's my attention?

His eyes see all, but they don't see me.

I work hard, and never complain. I may act like I don't like my team, but truly I am glad to be here. They accept me, yet they do not see me. No one sees me, for no matter how hard I work, I'm never good enough.

He wasn't expected to be what he is. A prodigy in his own right, outdoing all the limitations put on him.

I am plain. Dull brown eyes and hair; mediocre skills. I may be able to hit any target, but that doesn't mean anything. It seems I need to have amazing jutsu, and unbeatable skills of some kind. I am not special.

He is skilled, and he takes it for granted.

Cool white eyes. I drown in them. I want them to watch me, to see me, but they're to set on their task.

I clutch my kunai harder, before throwing it at the target. As always, it hits dead centre, but I can't help but think it still isn't good enough. My teacher congratulates me, with words used so much they have no meaning. Everything he says never used to make sense, speaking in 'poetic' ways that only made sense to him. I understand now, but the meaning is lost.

More weapons are pulled into my practiced hands as I stare down my target, before whipping them towards it with a speed only I possess. Only I possess naturally anyway, some people botch the circumstances in their favour by using chakra. Once again, it hits the target dead centre, landing on top of the first kunai and clattering to the ground. Useless comments follow again. I have his eyes only because he needs to look, because he is expected to. No one sees; no one wants to.

I look next to me, to see him moving with his swift grace, somewhere between a dance and a meditation, but most defiantly seeming nothing like a fighting style. My teacher sees this glance, and suggests we face off. I haven't fought him since we were Genin, considering he is now 'superior' of me. What bull.

The suggestion is given to him, and he looks me over with his cool eyes. He only listens to our teacher anymore, even though they are at the same level as Jounin. I am sure he is going to refuse, but to my surprise, when his voice rings it out in the majestic way only he can muster, it speaks of acceptance rather than refusal.

We face each other, our teacher shouting things at us that I cannot catch. The match begins, and he flies at me in his practiced grace. I am not going to let him get too close. I know he works; he doesn't know how I work. You watch and you learn, but if you stay stuck in your own world, you learn nothing of others.

Weapons fly from my hands before I am even aware that they are there, and he deflects and dodges them with barely a thought. I have never seen him sweat. He is too perfect.

My hands reach behind me, unfurling paper along with it. Signs are sprawled all along it, summons.

I press my hand to one, and a large sword appears in my hand. I furl the scrolls back again, before facing his cool eyes again.

He reaches out to strike me, but I do not dodge. I know I will just move into another strike. I swipe down the blade, and he is the one who has to dodge. I pull out a series of shuriken, and they are flying through the air already. He spins, and sends them flying off in random directions. He stops, and I have the blade at his throat before he has time to get his bearings.

My teacher congratulates me, sputtering some nonsense of my youthfulness. As my blade disappears into a puff of smoke, cool eyes watch me.

I start to walk away, dismissing myself with my sensei before leaving, my training done. I feel smug. For once, I have won.

I can feel his eyes burning in my back. He sees me, but out of spite. I'm not sure if I like this any better.

I find my way home, along a path carved through forest. My teacher always insists on training far out in the forest, where it is among everything 'youthful'. If you haven't noticed, he's really messed up. My other team mate idolises him, and follows him like a lost puppy as well as does everything he can to be just like him.

I reach my home, where I now live alone. I moved away from my parents a few years back; and now live in this pig shed of a house. My keys are pulled from my pockets by my precise hands, and they reach the doorknob. Ice slinks around my waist, and I gasp and turn around, breaking from the grasp and press into the door, opening it sending myself tumbling backwards and onto the floor.

I groan and grumble as I scramble to my feet, looking up when I have found my bearing just to stare straight into icy eyes.

He sees me, alright.


	2. Chapter 2 Ver 2

His cool eyes. They swamp my vision and my mind, so that it's all that's left. So that he's all that's left. They steal the words from my mouth before they are spoken, leaving me open-mouthed.

"TenTen," He acknowledges. I shake my head to clear my thoughts, trying to subdue the blush on my cheeks.

"Neji," I greet him, looking at the ground to avoid the gaze that controls me, that torments me. The one I dream of in jealousy and lust.

He gently takes my chin in his icy grip, and tilts my head up so that I am gripped in his gaze again. I want to rip away from his grasp, to be away from his inescapable gaze, but I have longed for his touch too long, and my body stays frozen so as not to make a mistake and take away the touch too early. I mentally scold myself for my school girl thoughts I thought I had pushed away so as not to interfere as my duty as a shinobi.

His eyes search my face, and for a moment, I think I see frustration flash through them, but just as quickly as it came it is gone, and it leaves me with guilt for being so foolish as to thinking he has emotions.

"What are you thinking?" He asks softly.

"…" I think over his words. "I… Can't your eyes read it?"

"… I thought they could."

I escape from his gaze, but I am still painfully aware of his light touch on my arms, more of a guideline of where I should be than forcing me to be there. They are too gentle. It tricks my mind, and doesn't let me think rationally. It makes me think he truly cares about my wellbeing, when I know this isn't true. He only cares since my health is important on missions.

"What are you thinking?" He repeats, and the hand that is still resting on my chin tightens its grip, but does not force me to look up. I can almost feel the frustration coursing through him, though there is no visible sign.

"I…" I trail off again. I hate how he manipulates me; uses what I want against me so he can solve the simple mystery that stumps him. I don't want to let him have another victory, but I never want his touch to leave, the iciness of his skin that is there instead of warmth, his childish questions since he does not understand the human mind since he lacks the emotions to relate.

"I'm thinking…" I try again, and I can feel his curiosity and frustration peak.

Reluctantly, I meet his gaze, and try to hold my ground so I will not be sucked into his will through them. "I'm wondering what you're thinking."

He frowns at my answer, obviously unsatisfied. "And…?"

"There is no 'and'. You never feel, and when you do, you don't let anyone see. Why? What are you afraid of?"

He flinches, and I know I've hit it head on. "I'm not afraid of anything." He denies.

"You flinched, Neji."

He scowls, as though challenging me to push him further. Btu for once, his expression doesn't scare me. Underneath the glare in his usually unreadable eyes, I am able to see his real emotions. Pain, confusion, loss, fear… and hope.

"What have you lost?"

He flinches, and I can see the pain clearly flash through his beautiful eyes. I have to resist to not reaching and trying to comfort him with my touch.

"My father… died for the main branch's head." He reveals. "They were twins, and my father was born after, so he became part of the second branch."

I had always known that the Hyuuga family wasn't the pretty picture kind of place they pretended to be, but I didn't know it was like this. Hearing the painful truth about the cruel place he had grown up, I don't know how to feel about it. Suddenly, I am drowning in different emotions.

"My mother died giving birth to me." He continues, "And when I was young, I was selected to be Hinata-sama's Guardian. Because of that, I have a curse mark that allows the Main Branch to kill me at any time."

I gasp, unable to stifle the sound. I can immediately see regret flicker through his eyes, and know he wishes he had not told me this. He thinks I am too weak to handle it.

"I…" He starts unsure of what to say. He lacks emotions; he does not know how to comfort. But the simple thought that I can see that he wants to is enough.

I step forward and gingerly place my arms around him in a hug that barely graces the skin, since he is like a frightened animal towards human contact and emotions. He remains stock-still, and I know I have done something wrong, so I pull away, about to apologize for my rash behaviour.

Yet, when I pull away, I am not met with a disproving glare, instead, I am met with a soft gaze and subtly pink cheeks.


	3. Chapter 2 Ver 1 Worse Version

One more target. Only one more time do I need to hit the bright red and white ringed circle that is much too easy for my level. Only one, and then I am free. Free from this hell whole. Free from my team mate and sensei's annoying words and useless praise. Free from the pain that comes from the seemingly endless training my sensei insists on.

And most of all, free from his eyes.

He has never given up on watching me since the day I had beat him, and practices until he is free to go, and then merely sits and watches me. I'm not sure what he expects of me. Another match maybe? Just so he can beat me and prove his superiority. I almost want to give in, just to get him to leave me alone. However, I'm still as stubborn as I was as a child, and I don't want to give him the satisfaction of getting what he wants or winning.

Instead of his eyes, I focus on my target. Just as I have done for so long, just as I will always do. This is all I'm good at, so I will work at it until there is no room for improvement. Until, just like the stoic boy watching me, I am perfect. He is perfect at everything, so it would be good to be perfect at something. I throw my thoughts away and clear my head of anything but the red and white, and the feel of the cool metal in my hand.

I barely aware I have thrown it until there is a thunk as the weapon hits the wood the target is put up on, hitting dead centre.

My sensei praises me, and allows me to leave. I thank him, and I am aware of how dead and flat my voice sounds. It is painfully obvious how tired I am, and I have long abandoned complaining, for it falls dead on my sensei's ears.

Again, his eyes follow me as I leave. I have become used to their feel, and I am no longer paranoid about it. As a ninja, the feel of eyes is usually an alert to enemies, so it made me constantly on edge. Now, I am used to them, and have learned to tell apart his gaze from others.

Today however, his gaze is not the only thing that follows me. His cold voice calls after me, not as loud as a yell. The quiet boy does not yell. It is beyond his capabilities.

I spin around to face him, trying to control my temper. Our eyes lock, and for once, I am the one glaring instead of him.

He just stares at me, as if I have called him. Of course, I must supply all conversation. He is too good for it.

"Talk to me." He says.

I glare harder at him, as though it will make him disappear. This proves to disappoint.

"TenTen, why are you ignoring me?"

"Neji, why are you stalking me?"

"I asked you first."

"And I waited for you to talk to me before you waited for me to talk to you."

"You are so stubborn."

"And you are so big-headed."

He snorted.

"What? Mr. Perfect can't handle any criticism?"

"Ms. Stare doesn't like it when I do the same?"

"Bastard,"

This shut him up.

"Am not,"

Or maybe not…

I say, "What are we? Five?"

"You might be."

"I'm not the one who said, 'Am not!' "

"I'm not the one stomping away and throwing tantrums like a child."

"…"

"See?"

"Shut up, I don't do that."

"Yes you do."

"How would you know?"

"…"

"See?"

"Shut up, you talk too much."

"You talk too little. I wouldn't be surprised if you dropped dead from talking so much."

"I wouldn't speak of dropping dead; you're the weakest one on the team."

I wave my fist in his face. "Wanna repeat that?"

"And you're impulsive with no anger control."

"And you're a smartass icecube who has to perfect at everything he does the first time."

"I think you just complimented me."

"Ugh!"

"Can we please just talk?"

"We just did, goodbye."

I spin around and started to walk off, but he grabs my wrist in his icy grip.

"If you don't let go of me right now, I'll slice you in places you didn't know you had."

He doesn't react, and instead just stares straight at me with his unreadable eyes.

"Don't ignore me."

"Who died and made you king?"

"TenTen,"

"Yeah, yeah, out of line. Just let go of my arm and we'll pretend this never happened?"

"What happened to slicing?"

"That's what will happen if you don't let go of my arm."

"You couldn't if you tried."

"Would you like to test it?"

"I think I already am."

"Smartass," I whisper.

"What?"

"Nothing!" I wave away with a bright smile. If he had pupils, he probably would roll his eyes. I hate those eyes. They make him impossible to read, and they distract me more than I like to admit.

He starts to pull me off the path and into the forest, where I stumble, but he doesn't pause to let me catch myself. And of course, he is too perfect to stumble.

Finally he stops, and we are standing in front a huge tree. I don't know what kind it is, I have never looked into that kind of stuff, but it has sturdy, fat branches that reach close to the bottom of the tree so they are in reach. It is perfect for climbing.

He sits at the bottom of the tree and looks up expectantly as though waiting for me to sit. I wait for a moment to see what he will do if I don't sit, but my exhaustion from training gets the best of me.

We sit in awkward silence for a while, until I decide to break it.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"…"

"I'm leaving,"

"Why are you ignoring me? You used to…"

I look over to him; he seems to have quite the interest in the grass below us at the moment. "I used to what?"

He hesitates. "You used to try to get me to talk and be involved. You used to try to be my friend. Even when you gave that up, you used to watch me and check on me. Now… You only ignore me."

I look at the ground like him. "Welcome to my world."

"This is how you felt?"

I shrug, mostly because I am unsure of what to say.

"I'm sorry."

My head whips around so fast I'm surprised I don't get whiplash. "What?"

"I'm not saying it again."

I groan and roll my eyes, falling back against the tree. Just when I think I'm making progress, he goes and is all… I can't even describe it. Just stupid, I guess. This is why I'd even up in the first place.

We are put into silence again, but this one is comfortable to me. I nearly forget he is there, and end up closing my eyes after some time.

"TenTen,"

Great, just plain great.

"Sure, let's go through this all over again. I have nothing better to do today anyway."

"TenTen,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. What do you want?"

I finally opened my eyes and immediately jerked back, hitting the back of my head against the tree. He had moved so that he was sitting in front of me, staring straight at me. It was a little too close for comfort.

"Neji! What the hell?!" I scream at him, but he doesn't react. I stay pressed against the trunk of the tree trying to get as much space as possible.

We stare at each other for a moment, and I become hypnotised by his eyes.

He leans closer, and I am about to snap out of it before he keeps going and our lips are pressed together.


End file.
